“Cruz always knows how to use standard Republican sound bites to garner applause. The moment he senses that he might be losing the crowd with policy, he just throws in a few grand words to gain applause,” said Grimm, a fiscal conservative who worked for Mark Jacobs’ 2014 U.S. Senate campaign.

But there wasn’t much reaction even when Cruz repeatedly mentioned U.S. Rep. Steve King , R-Kiron, who’s widely popular with Iowa’s social conservatives and hard-liners on immigration. Cruz said King knows that he led the fight against “amnesty” and is now national co-chair of his campaign.

The audience did go wild when the camera cut to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad in his seat at the Iowa Events Center. The moderators asked Cruz about the governor’s dismay with Cruz’s stance on opposing the renewable fuel mandate. Cruz got a few cheers when he said he believes there should be no federal energy subsidies and no mandates whatsoever.

At another point, Cruz launched into what seemed to be a complaint about the moderators asking questions aimed at getting the candidates to attack each other, and then pivoted into a joke about Trump not being on the stage.

“If you guys ask one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage,” Cruz said.

“It fell really flat,” said Tim Hagle, a political science professor at the University of Iowa

The crowd didn’t respond well to Cruz’s remarks, Iowans said.

Do you think this review will damage the Texas Senator or will he be able to weather the storm. Share your comments below and let us know what you think.

About Wayne Dupree

My name is Wayne Dupree or as most of you know me by, Newsninja2012. I am and have been committed to exposing the Democrats in a way that has been frowned upon by some conservatives and cheered by many more.